These days, most of my reviews tend to be of interchangeable-lens cameras, simply because thanks to the arrival of the smartphone on the scene, ILCs have become the lifeblood of the digital camera market. But if carrying around a camera and a bag full of lenses isn't your style and you don't need large-sensor image quality, the travel zoom camera represents an interesting alternative to your smartphone, too.

Chances are that your phone offers only a digital zoom function which has limited reach, and yet still badly degrades image quality as you zoom in. There's simply not room to fit in a decent zoom lens within the size constraints of a modern smartphone, after all. And with the 12th-generation Panasonic ZS70 travel zoom -- which (just) fits in a pants pocket and sports a 30x zoom lens -- having landed in our queue for review, I figured it'd make a nice change of pace from lugging lenses around, too!

For my first field test of the Panasonic ZS70, I headed to the historic old town of nearby Sevierville, Tennessee with my son for a photo walk, then headed on to the tourist town of Pigeon Forge, the lush valley of Cades Cove, and finally stopped over in nearby Maryville for some more varied subjects (and a nice meal) on the way back home.

All things considered, the day struck me as being much how the potential Panasonic ZS70 owner would likely use their camera, enjoying capturing photos of a wide variety of subjects at focal lengths across the board, while remaining focused on the experience itself as well. (And my son and I certainly had plenty of fun, especially while the sun slipped beneath the mountains as we toured scenic Cades Cove.)

So how did this pocket-friendly travel zoom acquit itself in this first real-world test of its capabilities? To find out, you'll want to hop on over to my first field test of the Panasonic ZS70, available now for your reading pleasure! And when you're done, don't forget to stop by the gallery for even more real-world Panasonic ZS70 photos, unedited and straight out of the camera as always... (There were simply too many to fit into the field test and this news item!)